Issues And Debates: Ethics In Social Psychology

Question 1

describe respect guidelines with examples linked to psychology

Answer 1

Informed consent:
- telling participants the aims of the experiment
- e.g. if the experiment is about prejudice we tell the participants the aims of investigating prejudice

Right to withdraw:
- allowing the participant to withdraw from the experiment at any moment without an explanation or consequences

Question 2

describe responsibility guidelines

Answer 2

Psychologists have responsibility to themselves, participants and the general public. They must try to ensure any research does not damage the reputation of psychology. They must ensure participants are (protected from psychological harm) and always (debriefed) at the end of any research.

Question 3

Use research evidence to show that there are/aren’t ethical issues in social psychology and whether this is a problem or not

Answer 3

• Milgram = Milgram did deceive the participants as he had told them that the experiment was a memory, learning and punishment test, however that was not the true aims of me experiment

However, after the experiment Milgram gave a debrief of the true aims of the experiment. He also presented the learner to the participants to prevent any psychological harm as then they would know they haven’t actually harm another human being

• Burger = Burger gave a very detailed debrief at the end of his experiment which revealed to the participants the true aims of the experiment. But also to prevent psychological harm he offered every participant support if they ever needed it